How Engines Are Becoming More Fuel Efficient

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The abrupt rise of fuel economy in the US was a direct result of a shift of fuel economy policy in 1975, in response to the oil price shock of the early 1970s. This caused a transition towards smaller cars with less powerful, smaller engines.

Manufacturers took note of this and started exploring technologies that would bring power and robustness back to their vehicles while still maintaining good fuel economy.

An engine extracts energy from the burning of gasoline. It does this by first taking in a mixture of fuel and air into a cylinder. The total working volume of all of the cylinders in an engine is known as its displacement.

It then compresses the mixture and ignites it with a spark plug. As the mixture burns, it expands, pushing down a piston, which rotates a crankshaft. The spent gases are then pushed out through the exhaust. Power is sent from the rotating crankshaft, through the drivetrain, then to the wheels.

The first step is to reduce the size of the vehicle. We can now reduce the size of the powertrain. A lower displacement engine with fewer cylinders loses less energy getting power to the wheels. This is called a parasitic loss.

The amount of fuel-air mixture an engine can aspirate to create power is directly related to its displacement and number of cylinders. By reducing engine displacement size, you lower the amount of power an engine can make but also the amount of fuel it consumes.

The first steps were to control the fuel usage of the engine more accurately. In order to do this, we need to understand when fuel is used most and why.

Engines in cars have 5 modes of operation. Starting, idling, accelerating, cruising, and decelerating. Acceleration and cruising. These two modes are where most fuel consumption occurs.

Throttling open an engine to make more power is where its highest fuel consumption occurs. Cruising, on the other hand, occurs when the throttle is held slightly open, keeping the engine speed and power output steady. This is where we can hone in the fuel efficiency of an engine.

Most of the fuel we use driving is caused by a combination of short bursts of acceleration and longer periods of cruising. The key to balancing power and fuel economy is having strong acceleration characteristics but efficient cruising characteristics

The ideal ratio of air to gasoline is 14.7 to 1. This is known as a stoichiometric mixture. But in practice, this ratio becomes difficult to achieve.

To compensate for this more fuel is added, enriching it. This allows more fuel to be burned without ideal mixing. Enriching is used primarily under acceleration to ensure maximum power generation. Unburnt fuel is wasted.

With cruising, since our power requirements are constant and relatively low, mixtures closer to 14.7 to 1 or even slightly higher are used. This is known as running lean since were not utilizing all of the air in combustion. Running lean uses less fuel but can be damaging. Uncontrolled self-ignition of the mixture is called detonation and it can cause overheating and damage to an engine.

Incoming fuel is used to cool the combustion chamber and control the rate of burning, reducing the chances of detonation. This limit how lean we can run an engine.

Up until the 1980s, most cars relied on carburetors to meter out fuel. Because of its mechanical nature, carburetors lack precise control over air-fuel mixture and required maintenance to keep them functioning correctly. Electronic fuel injection was embraced by manufacturers.

Fuel injection works by precisely spraying pressurized fuel through computer controlled injectors. The computer that meters out fuel is known as an engine control unit or ECU. Some of the key parameters measured are engine rpm, air temperature, air flow into the engine, throttle position and engine temperature. Manufacturers could now tune fuel systems much closer to the ideals for both power and fuel economy.

Because the injected fuel is sprayed at higher pressures, better air-fuel mixing occurs. It requires less enrichment overall and improves both fuel economy and power.

On most engines, the fuel injection system and the ignition system are merged. This allows the ECU to adjust the ignition point timing relative to the combustion cycle. Creating a spark earlier in the cycle, or advancing the timing can produce more power by starting combustion sooner.

Another advantage of fuel injection is that it allows for the use of feedback in the fuel delivery system. During cruising, the leanness of combustion is monitored by an oxygen sensor is in the exhaust stream, providing feedback to the ECU. The ECU can use this data to trim the air-fuel mixture closer to ideal, boosting fuel economy.

Sensors to detect detonation are also present on some fuel injection systems. Early sensors work by listening for the acoustical signature of detonation on the engine block.

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What manufacturers do now is put more sensors, and fancy mechanical stuff on the engines to make them more fuel efficient. Bad news for people like me who are mechanics. It's getting harder and harder to work on cars yourself unfortunately

BuddysDIY
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It's only a matter of time before Skillshare is all over this channel

chrisjinks
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I really like the density of information that is introduced at a speed I can understand.

scottbaron
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The best way to improve fuel economy is to drive downhill only.

timhallas
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6:55 ish. You got a sub out of that just because you literally took the time to draw every specific one of the sensors out individually....bringing back all those aggravating moments from my youth. Sharp.

phuturephunk
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Pretty freaking awesome. If I may suggest, mention the achievements of Koenigsegg's variable valve timing achieving a record 55% fuel efficiency

heynando
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I just noticed the spark plug at 3:55 is upside down XD

conner
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Was expecting you to show turbos haha, because thats the new trend small engines with powerful turbos so they dont lack power and are very fuel efficient

MrWaheedulHaque
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A 1983 Volvo 240 which is shaped like a brick and has a 4 speed transmission with overdrive geared for 55mph highway driving still gets about 42mpg highway at 70mph. All my experiences with new cars have gotten about 30mpg highway so in my opinion new cars are useless at creating efficient engines, especially turbocharged 4 cylinder engines.

matthewbarge
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I have a Nissan Versa that has dinosaur tech (late 90s engine design) and early 2010s software. It makes 42.2 mpg in the highway :v
Considering it costed me almost nothing and has never broken down, I guess I got a good deal

zhbvenkhoReload
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No matter how advance fuel efficiency may go, I still got love for Carburetors

Built_it_by-alex
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Modern engines ARE amazing. My car has a 2.0 turbodiesel that produces 184 horsepower and it will average 60+ MPG on a long motorway trip. I'm only 46 and remember when I was a kid that you could smell cars as they drove past you down the road. You rarely, if ever, smell that now because fuel metering is so accurate and efficient.

GuyRWood
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Where is the next video? And please do mention about cylinder deactivation too as well as tumbling and, HCCI (e.g. Mazda Skyactiv-X technology) which manipulates higher compression ratio to increase efficiency.

XybrTeCh
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A rich mixture produces more power primarily because of the effect it has on reducing knock and combustion temperature. Though it's true some of the power comes from using up all the available oxygen, it's mainly from the additional ignition timing and (if turbocharged) boost that can be added with an enriched mixture.

xeigen
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I bought a 1979 Chevy half ton, full time 4WD pickup in 1984. It had the small block 350 and got about 10 mpg. I put lockout hubs, converted the transfer case to part time, dual exhaust, an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, and a Holley 600 carb on it and increased the mpg to about 14-15. Mind you this was at speeds of 60-65 mph. That combination maybe put 200 hp to the rear wheels. I just did 1500 miles in my 2019 Silverado crew cab with 4WD and the 6.2 engine which puts about 350 hp to the rear wheels. At speeds of 70-85 mph I averaged 21 mpg. The improved efficiency of the new vehicles along with substantially (night and day) increase in power is truly mind blowing to me. I have no doubt I could average 23-25 mpg with the 2019 if I actually drove as slow now as we did back in the 80s when the speed limit was 55.

guyconnell
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The way that the spark plug is shown upside down kinda grinds my gears.

petejerry
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A clear and understandable description of topic taken. I can say with certainty that I am an early subscriber to a big YouTube channel of future.

jubinsinghal
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*laughs nervously in constantly floored 88 f150 getting like 7mpg*

rickyallaroundfisherman
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The cars I drove back in the 80's got better fuel economy that the current crop of techno nightmares.

bradstoybox
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"Working volume" is a bit vague re: displacement, but I'm picking nits here of course. Piston swept volume would be more precise. Good video all the same. Cheers!

CapriciousBlackBox